Blue whistling thrush: Myophonus caeruleus

Blue whistling thrush
Myophonus caeruleus

Blue whistling thrush: Myophonus caeruleus ssp. temminckii

IUCN Status: LC – Least Concern.

Place: Pangot. Also spotted at Sattal, a day earlier.

Date: 4^th April, 2015.

Being a commoner often makes people ignore one’s beauty. This is the problem with the Blue whistling thrush. Featured here is the subspecies  temmnickii which is a resident of the Himalayas, NE India, Tibet and Myanmar; and extending in a western direction up to Baluchistan. Further east, south-east, west and north-west are inhabited by different subspecies.

 

Coming back, being a common bird often excites little curiosity from people or deep interest from birdwatchers. Yet this is a beautiful bird. This is an adult, deep blue-black in colour with the head, shoulders and upperparts spangled with glistening silver-blue. One would think it was wearing the EU flag! Wings, tail and forehead are brighter blue. It has a stout yellow bill and black legs...as if dressed for a formal party. When sunlight falls on this bird, it has a brilliant steely-blue glint like a pistol.

 

The iris is dark brown.

 

It makes an almost human whistling sound. Many a-times this bird has startled me with its whistling in an almost quiet forest. One got used to it by and by, but initially it did sound human.

 

It’s about 25-30 cms in length. It spends a lot of time on the ground and near water. It feeds on snails, molluscs, crabs, insects, worms and berries.

 

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Muscicapidae

Genus: Myophonus

Species:caeruleus

Subspecies: temminckii

 

Both genders look alike. The juveniles are more brownish.

 

 

Photographed in Forests beyond Pangot, Uttarakhand, India on 4.4.2015.

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm lens.